Witch hunt for scape goat

In Chua Mui Hoong's article she mentioned that the govt has accepted responsibility for the Mas Selamat escape and went on to discuss the virtues or correctness of pin pointing the one who is responsible for the escape. Who is culpable, who is to be blamed, who actually contributed to mistake or failure? What it finally boils down to is that the person who is directly involved in the issue should be held accountable. Those higher up, who are at a distance, who are not directly involved, should not be dragged in and be held accountable. Given this line of reasoning, the govt should not even accept responsibility for the escape. The people to be held accountable should be the guards, the people designing the detention centre and managing the detention centre. The rest of the govt has nothing to do with in. It is meaningless to accept responsibility without accountability. And it is wrong to accept responsibility when one is not involved or remote from the incident.

Lack of talent in Opposition

The Mas Selamat case is a golden opportunity for the opposition to score whatever points they want in Parliament. Unfortunately their performance so far is very unflattering. The best opposition came in the form of Inderjit Singh, who was able to ask some meaningful questions quite forcefully. I must say that I am very disappointed. How could the whole embarrassing episode get by and the opposition could not even make a small dent on the govt? And they had to shield their eyes in the face of a few glares. The lack of talent in the opposition camp to rise to the occasion is very telling.

The Parliament Glare

On the first day of Parliament Low Thia Khiang popped the cheeky question to Kan Seng on whether the rumour that Mas Selamat was already dead. All he got was a glare. And he conceded and answered his own question, that Mas was not dead. Yesterday he was asking Hsien Loong about accountability and suggesting that Kan Seng should resigned. He got a Hsien Loong glare. And he kept quiet when Hsien Loong asked him if Kan Seng should resign. At the rate that it is going, the glare will be so blinding that Parliament need not switch the lights anymore.

A new prison in Changi

It was reported that a better and more secure facility would be built inside Changi to replace the WRDC. A forumer wrote to Today saying that it was a bad idea as the terrorists and highly dangerous prisoners would be in contact with other prisoners and could turn it into a breeding ground for terrorists. He suggested an island like St John to keep them away from the masses. All very bad idea to me. We should not be wasting so much public money on terrorists and dangerous prisoners. And please don't give up our tropical island resorts to them. What they need is a double layer container, sealed and placed in the centre of nowhere. That should do the job. Just add a CCTV for added surveillance. But make sure it is switched on.

Notable quote by Redbean

'You can delegate a task, but you cannot delegate your responsibility.' Redbean I learnt this as a young officer in NS.